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Name this aircraft – Answer below in Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips. |
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Gerry Schwartz, a consummate Canadian dealmaker who came up in the go-go 1980s of leveraged buyouts, and venture capital fame, announced Friday he would be stepping down as CEO of Onex Corp., the private equity firm he founded nearly 40 years ago. At one time Air Canada was in his sights. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Onex bought Calgary-based WestJet Airlines Ltd. in a $5-billion deal, including debt. Schwartz has been a player in many such high-profile deals since founding Onex in 1984, including the consolidation of the dairy industry and the multi-billion battle for telecom giant BCE Inc. Source: financialpost.com |
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Worlds last flying Super Constellation in Australia. The world’s only flying Super Constellation is at Shellharbour Airport (SHL) and can be seen at the HARS Museum every day. Connie’s last active duty was with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard from mid 1972 until its relegation to storage at Davis Monthan Air Base at Tucson, Arizona in June 1977. In 1990 some Society members were in Tucson collecting Neptune spares and saw this derelict Super Constellation. In a moment of madness the thought occurred that it should be recovered to complete Australia’s aviation history and negotiations commenced for its acquisition. Considered obsolete and of no further use, storage maintenance ceased in 1981 and as a result was designated of scrap value only. In addition, most of the engine accessories and instruments had been cannibalised. Failure to re-seal the aircraft after an inspection permitted access to legions of birds to nest and foul the interior over many years. This in turn discouraged the scrap metal merchants from bidding on the aircraft due to the infestation of guano and the subsequent imperfections that it would cause in the smelting of the aluminium. In November 1991, HARS started what was to become a major project when 54-0157 was placed in our care for restoration and delivery to Australia. Connie is now the only flying L-1049 Super Constellation in the world. Until recently, the other was the Breitling Super Constellation in Switzerland. Amazingly both aircraft were built next to each other in the factory. Connie is #4176 and the former Breitling Constellation is #4177. |
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